Cars: Sales Of Specialty Equipment Came Close To $29 Billion Last Year, Despite A Sluggish Economy

If you have no idea what that means, you clearly aren't in sync with the latest incarnation of America's love affair with cars.

Young adults are customizing their cars and trucks with an array of accessories, including oversized and spinning wheels, interior neon lighting, DVD theaters and showy spoilers. And the trend is fueling and shaping sales at auto equipment retailers and custom shops across the country.

Sales of so-called tuner cars, those made for accessorizing, rose from less than $300 million in 1997 to more than $3 billion last year -- an average annual increase of nearly 50 percent, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association, a trade group in Diamond Bar, Calif.

More than half of all young adults buying a new car last year said they planned to modify them, according to an association survey.

"A car is a fashion statement, a personal statement about who you are," said Rosemarie Kitchin, a spokesperson for the association.

This new twist on an old passion is manifested in the growing number of television programs about cars and how to modify them. Just click your remote a few times next time you're in front of the tube. There's Spike TV's Ride with Funkmaster Flex. The channel has launched Overdrive, another car-centered show. The Discovery Channel boasts Monster Garage. TLC debuted Overhaulin', which joins the popular Rides on that channel.

In case you think all of this appeals only to gear heads, MTV has Pimp My Ride, a car makeover show in the style of Trading Spaces and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. In MTV lingo, "pimp" is a verb that means to fix up or make glamorous.

"People are coming in now and saying they want something they saw on television the night before," said Chad Tietz, owner of Auto Exciter, a car customizing business in Green, Ohio. "It's definitely helped business."

Jim Palosi, owner of Customs Unlimited of Ohio in Hartville, Ohio, agreed. "There's a growing interest out there about what we can do," said Palosi. "I'm taking a lot more phone calls every day."

Trends in car customizing, much like those in current fashion, are taking their cue from an urban, hip-hop culture that has evolved beyond gangsta roots to include a broader market.

Young adults and customized cars make a natural pairing, said Jeff Winters, marketing manager for Summit Racing, the largest catalog and Internet retailer in the industry

"Fixing up your car is a declaration of independence," he said. "It's the kids' medium."

In the late 1990s, as the novelty of computers and the Internet began to wear off, young adults began bringing their technological savvy into new arenas, including the garage, industry experts say. Many of them could tap into a car's computer to change an engine's performance.

"But kids being kids realized they wanted not only to fix up the inside but the outside of the car as well," said Kitchin of the specialty association. So, they began buying custom wheels, which are still the most popular accessory, and moved on from there.

The list of accessories is "limited only by the imagination," said Winters of Summit Racing. There's neon piping for the upholstery, colorful lighting for the instrument panel, low-riding spoilers and all types of custom trims.

Although the flashiest accessories are snapped up by teens and young adults, the older-adult market is alive and well, Winters said.

"The hot-rod guys are still out there," he said.

Car customizing has been big business since the 1940s when World War II veterans came back to make their place in the new America.

In the 1950s and '60s, hot-rodding took root in California and spread across the country.

Although the specifics of the accessory market may shift shape, the impulse to personalize a car remains the same.

"Once you get bitten by the bug, it's with you for life," said Winters. "That's never going to change."